The first concept meetings for the old stadium at Greenpoint start today!  Sneaking out of House Arrest to attend.

There are many projects that are finishing off work, that could not be completed prior to the FIFA event, but this is different.  This is new. Exciting stuff...  It is worth being put in the dog house by medicos & the leader of the opposition to go to the initial meetings...

Been a funny old week.  Yesterday I was called to give evidence to a Portfolio Committee meeting in Parliament...which was different, but at least we were able to set the record straight on accessibility at both Cape Town & Nelson Mandela Bay Stadia.

Then today!  The City of Cape Town, and the stadium operators (SAIL Stade de France) hosted the concert by Filia School.  As mentioned in an earlier posting, this was perhaps the only facility which could provide the accessibility needed on this scale.  There were close to 200 children, many with quite severe disabilities performing, and many people with disabilities in the audience, along with several schools, from as far away as Franschhoek.  People had travelled in fromWellington to be there.

What a great event!!!  It is a pity that the press did not turn out in the numbers that this concert deserved, but as you can see from the photos below, we had a good crowd.

The concert was amazing, very moving, and inspirational.  The audience joined in, and the final rendition of the National Anthem was the most emotionally charged that I have ever witnessed!!  I was in a position where I could see the crowd, and there were very few dry eyes.  It was a fantastic celebration of diversity. 
Even the weather was on our side; after several days of torrential rain, & several more forecast, the concert happened in the dry!!! 
This event proved the accessibility of the stadium, beyond any doubt, and was a truly amazing experience.  We hope it will become an annual event.

Press Release

I thought I would write up a quick post before I seize up completely....

Really special day today.  We were testing some aspects of the accessibility at one of MY stadia (OK, so officially the keys were given to the City of Cape Town yesterday....but....).

So I had a select band of people, including one former blogger from MyDL, and the famous  Chaeli - from the famous Chaeli Campaign (if ever you want to read a heart warming story go and have a look there!!!), along with some students from UCT (thank you all!!!), and even my 12 year old son (in my old wheelchair, to make up numbers!!!).  We had to drag the females out of the players showers as they wanted to hide there, in the hope that some specific players would want some help washing their backs in the showers....

Cape Town Stadium is an amazing piece of architecture, and visitors there always leave impressed with the beauty of the place.  That is testiment to the amazing team of architects and builders.  But today, I got my reward...seeing people with disabilities able to independently access ALL areas...and to listen to their own "WOW's".

Am grinning from ear to ear here!!!







Some days make it all worth while...